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You never lose it. Another common misconception is thinking that health savings accounts work like healthcare flexible spending arrangements (FSAs, or flexible spending accounts) where you used to lose the money you set aside in pretax salary deferrals if you didn’t spend it in the plan year. The FSA rules have been liberalized so at some employers, you can roll over $500 of unspent money into the next plan year. But HSAs are different. Your account balance automatically rolls over every year. And all the money you put in is always yours to keep, even if you leave your employer.

Open an investment account. One thing that’s confusing about HSAs is that one account actually has two components, a cash account and an optional investment account. Once your balance reaches $2,000 (that’s the typical threshold) you can sweep money into an investment account and invest in mutual funds. At The Bancorp, 7% of their customer base has an investment account. Kelley says that even some employees with fat balances forego the investment option. In one case, an account holder has $40,000 in his cash account—earning less than 1% in interest. (The money in a cash account at The Bancorp earns just 0.05% for a balance under $500 and 0.95% for balances of $15,000 and more.)

Stay on top of the contribution limits. Health savings account limits are updated annually to reflect cost-of-living adjustments. The IRS recently announced the health savings account contribution limits for 2015. For 2015, an individual can save $3,350 in an HSA for individual coverage, and $6,650 for family coverage—up from $3,300 and $6,550 for 2014. There are also catch-up contributions for those 55 and older of $1,000 a year, but they come with a catch—each spouse has to have a separate account to put away the catch-up.

A health savings account must be paired with a high deductible health plan (for 2015, that’s a plan with an annual deductible that’s not less than $1,300 for individual coverage or $2,600 for family coverage, and the annual out-of-pocket expenses--including deductibles and co-pays but not premiums--do not exceed $6,450 for individual coverage or $12,900 for family coverage).

Top off your contributions by tax day. Even if you haven’t contributed to the max through salary deferrals for any given year, you can make a deposit (just write a check) to your health savings account for the balance and you have up until you file your taxes for that tax year to do so.

Curious how your balance stacks up to averages in your age group? The Bancorp looked at its clients balances on the cash side (not including the investment option) and found the average balance of $2,200. Here’s a breakdown by age.